Each workpiece is so milled in one single cycle, that a tenon is produced. This cycle comprises four movements, that is to say a to and fro movement of the sledge and two pivotal movements of the cutter support. The direction of rotation of the cutter is thus that the wood is always attacked toward the center of the workpiece, so as to encounter no difficulties inherent to cutting the end of a piece of wood.
In practice, there are sometimes difficulties owing to the circumstance that both workpieces are always acted upon in one and the same cycle of sequential operations. This means that with one of the workpieces a first contact or approach of the cutter will cause the wood to break out, owing to an incorrect direction of rotation of the cutter at that location. Since such known milling machines offered many advantages, this problem has been accepted so far.
The aim of the invention is to provide a solution to the above problem without any basic change in the operation of the machine, while maintaining the constant cycle of a sequence of said operations on the workpieces, and the same direction for the translatory movements of the sledge and the two pivotal movements of the support structure of the cutter.